GRAND RAPIDS - Two men who owned an Albion drug store have entered pleas admitting they distributed prescription drugs and committed healthcare fraud.

John Shedd, 71 of Albion and Terry Tooley, 64, of Spring Arbor pleaded guilty Tuesday in before Judge Robert Jonker in Federal District Court in Grand Rapids to charges of conspiracy to distribute prescription drug controlled substances and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge.

They both face up to five years in federal prison and they have agreed to surrender their Drug Enforcement Administration pharmacy registrations, forfeit $1.2 million to the U.S. government and pay $500,000 in restitution to the healthcare benefit programs they defrauded.

They will be sentenced on Aug. 16.

Shedd and Tooley – both former owners – admitted they committed the crimes while they owned and operated Parks Drug Store at 318 S. Superior St., in Albion.

Federal investigators said that between 2012 and 2016 the men filled six times more controlled substance prescriptions than other Albion pharmacies. The substances included oxycodone, hyrdrocodone and methadone.

Included in court documents was the allegation that Shedd and Tooley became aware in 2016 that Dr. Horace J. Davis of Albion was prescribing methadone "outside the usual course of professional practice and without legitimate medical purpose."

The federal prosecutors said the men continued to fill prescriptions from Davis even following media reports that Davis had been charged in 2016 with federal crimes for prescribing methodone and that one of their drug wholesalers stopped providing drugs to the store.

Prosecutors said Shedd and Tooley continued to fill prescriptions from Davis after he had been indicted.

The store filled 50,000 doses during the period, court records show.

The government also alleged that from 2013 to 2016 the store submitted claims to insurance carriers for medication it did not actually dispense or was not covered.

The loss was estimated at $298,700 to Medicare Part D and $34,700 and $166,500 to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan.

Davis was convicted in 2017 of federal drug trafficking crimes and healthcare fraud.

The investigation was conducted by the Albion Department of Public Safety, the Calhoun County Sheriff Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Clay Stiffler prosecuted the case.

Contact Trace Christenson at 269-966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson